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Dont know how common or popular these are but i have had one of these for a good few years for backing up my photos and other images. I like it because it automaticaly searches and copies the images without me having to find them or do a general backup.

Like i say, had this for years and it has worked great. However i recently upgraded to 10 and have just tried to run the backup drive for the first time since. It connected normally and scanned my PC for photos, then it decided there wasnt enough space on the drive (its basically a portable HDD with special software added) to complete what should have been a normal incremental backup. Given the free space on the drive and the photos i had put on the PC since the last backup there should have been plenty of space - at least before on W7. I am suspecting that even though the files havent moved, the upgrade to 10 has made the PC seem like a new machine to the backup software and it is now trying to backup ALL my photos not just the recent ones. This itself is strange behaviour as the software (on the drive) should be giving me the option to RESTORE the photos contained on it if it thinks its connected to a new machine. This isnt happening either.

Stumped as to how to resolve it. The only solution i can think of is a complete reset of the device but i would rather not do this and it may not fix the issue - i am suspecting a compatibility issue with 10 here. The other option is abandonment of the device, again undesirable as i find other options less satisfactory for backing up. Tried the Polaroid website, but as they no longer sell the device it was no help. Cant seem to find a safe way to update the drivers either (which may fix the issue, not sure).

I know this is a bit of a longshot but any help or advice would be usefull. Thanks.

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Personally I think this is a Windows 10 upgrade issue. I think you are looking at least resetting the device even though you prefer not to. If resetting the device still gives you problems take a look at the free Aomei Backupper Standard. It will allow you to do file backups, both differential and incremental along with using file filters to only backup file extensions you select. It also lets you schedule backups. 1 and 2TB portable drives are fairly cheap and would allow you to do complete disk image or system image backups, both differential and incremental.

As I feared. Thanks for confirming them. Will try resetting the drive first and seeing what happens.

I do use AOMEI Backup software already, primarily for system backups and other file types. Could start a backup set for image files but as you have to tell AOMEI which directories to backup from things could easily get missed. The beauty of the Polaroid drive is that it is click free, ie it searches by file type not folders so if config-ed correctly shouldn't miss anything.

I am currently happy with 10 so have no reason to go back to 7 just yet. Don't think one old peripheral device is reason to do so!

Personally I think this is a Windows 10 upgrade issue. I think you are looking at least resetting the device even though you prefer not to. If resetting the device still gives you problems take a look at the free Aomei Backupper Standard. It will allow you to do file backups, both differential and incremental along with using file filters to only backup file extensions you select. It also lets you schedule backups. 1 and 2TB portable drives are fairly cheap and would allow you to do complete disk image or system image backups, both differential and incremental.

I agree it kind of sounds like a Windows 10 upgrade/compatibility issue. It is possible that the software is just not compatible with Windows 10, especially since if kind of sounds like maybe it is no longer supported if they no longer sell the device. While generally many software programs will work with new versions of Windows, upgrades to Windows can "break" some software. Since the software for the device needs to essentially search the system for photo files, I could see changes to Windows potentially causing problems with that functionality.

Yes I understand this, I have had it happen before when going from XP to 7, I had some video software that wouldn't work any more. It is this rather than anything else that made me delay upgrading to 10.

That said the software on my photo backup device in question runs from the external drive and isn't installed on the PC. I can still use the software to access the content, delete or reset it but not backup any new files.

Yes I understand this, I have had it happen before when going from XP to 7, I had some video software that wouldn't work any more. It is this rather than anything else that made me delay upgrading to 10.

That said the software on my photo backup device in question runs from the external drive and isn't installed on the PC. I can still use the software to access the content, delete or reset it but not backup any new files.

Whether the software is run from the external device or from the internal boot drive, it is still Windows that is running the software. So, if the software is programmed to do make use of Windows "instructions" that were changed in Windows 10 from earlier versions of Windows, then it may not work (either partially or completely). Accessing the stuff on the external drive is kind of different than "searching" the internal drive for specific file types.

So, my guess is that Microsoft changed something that causes a problem for the program. I could, however, be wrong and resetting the drive and starting the backup from scratch might fix things. Of course, you will not know that until you try. If it does not and you cannot backup to the reset device, then it kind of becomes totally useless. OTOH, it does seem to still allow you to access already backed up photos. So, you have to decide if you want to risk the "bird in hand" for the possibility of getting it working again. Only you can decide that.

FWIW, it sounds like you can set the Aomei backup software to only backup specific file types and then have it back up only those file types from the entire drive (essentially what you are doing now) according to JohnC_21 by using filters. I did not see any specific instructions for setting that up on the program's website, but I did see a screenshot that seemed to show the ability to setup filters after clicking "expand" arrow when after selecting the folder to backup. So, I cannot confirm that it will do what you need (without downloading and installing on a computer), but it might.

There certainly have to be backup programs that will allow you to backup just certain files types if Backupper. I would suspect that Retrospect will do that as it is a rather powerful backup program, but then it is not cheap (their website implies that it does).

Update: Problem seems to be fixed. I cleared and reset the device. After reconfiguring the backup settings, I ran a backup as normal and it worked as well as it always did. So it appears a reset was all that was needed to make it work on 10.

The only change is Autorun. Software used to run automaticaly on plugging in to the PC. Windows 10 now requires me to tell it what to do. Pretty minor niggle really considering I still have a working backup device!

Update: Problem seems to be fixed. I cleared and reset the device. After reconfiguring the backup settings, I ran a backup as normal and it worked as well as it always did. So it appears a reset was all that was needed to make it work on 10.

The only change is Autorun. Software used to run automaticaly on plugging in to the PC. Windows 10 now requires me to tell it what to do. Pretty minor niggle really considering I still have a working backup device!